Surrender, the Only Real Freedom

The struggle in a human being is always that he thinks freedom means getting somewhere. But wherever you go, you will not be free. Spiritually there has always been talk of surrender. But the moment logical, educated minds hear the word surrender, they will build forts around themselves.

In spirituality when the word surrender is used, it means you surrender that which is false. It is just that the very way you have existed up to now, is just a falsehood. What you refer to as yourself right now is simply a collection of identifications that you have taken in your life. Yet if you sincerely look at your essential Self, what have you got to surrender? You have nothing to surrender. Your essential Self is that which has always been and that which will always be. When you realize this fact, your spiritual work is done — you have already surrendered.

When you destroy the walls of falsehood that you have built, everything becomes one. Only when you merge with the existence, you are free. As long as you and the existence are separated there is no such thing as freedom. True freedom can happen only when 'you' are not. As long as you exist as an individual identity, separate from the existence, where is the question of freedom? You might enlarge your prison walls, but bondage is still there as long as you exist in separation.

In Truth, no walls exist in Creation. You just believe they exist, so separation is your limited and distorted perception of reality. When you seek ultimate freedom, all that is required is the surrender of your illusions. And only when you surrender your illusions, reality happens. Reality or Truth, is not something that you can create; it is that which contains you. It holds you — you are existing in the lap of reality. It's just that reality has not yet become your living experience.

Right now in your experience, with all the multiple impressions that you have, you have built a world of your own. And this world is not real, it is not Truth. Every moment, even to exist here physically, you have to communicate with the rest of existence. But you go about believing you are a whole unto yourself. You deal with life as if you've got nothing to do with anything outside of your limited perception.

You cannot exist here for even a moment without interaction and contact with existence. So freedom and liberation means to drop that which you are identified with, the falsehood that you have created. It means to tear down the walls that you have built between you and reality. To drop these false boundaries is what the spiritual process is all about. Spiritual masters simply create an atmosphere where it will become easier for a person to become free of his or her bondage. For most people, without access to a certain presence which is larger than yourself, dropping limitations becomes difficult. Dropping identifications that you have carried for a lifetime is like jumping into the void — it is frightening. When you feel a presence which is bigger than yourself, it gives the needed support. It becomes easier to keep yourself, or what you think as yourself, aside.

Until you are able to keep yourself aside, there is no possibility of finding Truth. When you drop your limited identification, you no longer need to isolate yourself from the rest of existence. For a person who is seeking liberation, the only way to Truth is the destruction of all walls, which means the dissolution of your individuality. That is ultimate freedom. That is meditation. That is liberation.